guild time!

some ladies where i work have a quilting group.  they call it a quilting guild, although there aren't any dues, so i don't know if it's "official." although, to be frank, i don't care if it is or isn't. it's fun to be around people who like to quilt and are making things.  we meet once a month at work and bring things to show or talk about the latest charity quilt.  that's one of the very cool things about the group; they make a charity quilt or two a year, and either give it away or auction it off and donate the proceeds to a group.  i think the next one they are working on is going to be a quilt that is donated to a hospice house.

i keep saying "they" because i'm not so sure about joining.  on one hand, yay, quilters! on the other hand, some of them are kind of uptight.  i really like my weirdo quilts. i like to work without a pattern. i like modern quilts, and improvising as i go. i like to buy fabric with no idea of what it will or won't become. a few of the ladies take very expensive classes and only make quilts with fabrics from the same line and designer, and are very serious about the art and technique of it.  i think all creative people face this; you have painters who prefer realism, and painters who prefer abstract forms and color.

one of the ladies has a physical reaction to my work. a "back up in my chair" reaction.  she spends all of her time looking at my stuff and saying, "no, no, no, i couldn't do this." which is fine, i get it. abstract isn't her thing, heirlooms are. at the same time, i like suggesting she try to loosen up.  she might like it. the same way i might like doing something more traditional. right now i'm just really into color and weirdness, but that doesn't mean that i think the work she does is any lesser than my own. traditional designs are gorgeous, and her quilts are really very beautiful.

there's a snobbery in quilting, though, that i can't get into. it's so hard for me to want to be a part of this thing and wanting to roll my eyes when someone goes on and on about juried shows.  i know that as women our art is often considered "craft," and that things that are useful are often relegated to less than art status. pottery made by men for no reason is art, a lovely water jug made by a woman who uses it daily is craft, for example. what i want is for the quilts i create to be BOTH. useful and beautiful and art.  abstract and homey and make-do. i want it all. i don't want to have to fight to be considered art, and i don't want to argue about why craft is important.  at the same time, i'm probably not carrying as many years of discrimination and disregard as this lady in my group. her work is considered frivolous and in the way, her partner rolls his eyes at the time and expense it costs her.  i have a family and partner who think what i do is amazing. who are supportive and open to new ideas.  i don't have to justify the fabric i buy or the room i use or the time i spend doing what i refer to as "work." i don't have to carve out time for it, i expect it and am given it. it helps that my kids are older and my husband is a hippie. i know not everyone is as lucky. i also think that as women, we internalize what society tells us. that our desires are too much, that our crafts are too distracting from our work, that the way we express our artistic selves is just a hobby. there isn't a lot of value given to women having alone time, to just create without purpose. to play. to explore and make and try new things.

to which i say, as my mother said before me, fuck that noise. let's make quilts and afghans and paintings and design bathrooms that feel like underwater grottoes and gardens that are home for fairies and gnomes. let's not feel bad about taking time to do what we want. let's be kind to ourselves. let's support other women and not make everything into a goddamn competition. life is short. make good stuff.   

post-post comicon update

oh man, i never updated my blog about comicon! i'm the worst!  at the very least, you have to see this photo of me looking dorky next to ron perlman while my children look fabulous:

my hair literally never does that fucked-up bang thing anywhere unless there is a camera nearby.  also, i am going to be a perpetually short parent.

meeting ron perlman was exactly like when ralphy met santa in a christmas story.  i basically clammed up until we were walking away.  he seemed nice and gracious, though, and i have photographic proof that hellboy lives. what more could i want?

the kids and i had a great time in the city.  we took taxis everywhere, which feels so cosmopolitan. we watched a lot of cartoons on the tv in the hotel.  we spent too much time and money at uwajimaya.  we came home with a billion comics and toys, and the girlchild thought of all the costumes we can make for next year.  she digs the steampunk, and i feel like we will be learning how to make corsets and rayguns this year.  lucky for me, steampunk fashion is friendly toward chub scouts.

see? i'm not always shiny and weird looking! that kid, though, is always cute.

i met bwana spoons like five minutes into walking into the convention.  right after i had said to the girlchild, "yeah, i try not to buy too much on the first day; it's really just a day for looking."  he had some tiny original watercolor and ink paintings, though, and i knew they would go fast.  i've always been a big fan of bwana, and had that dopey star-struck moment.  i actually said to him, "um, i didn't think you would be here." and he said, "yeah, me either.  i got a booth at the last minute."

the boychik and i also discovered, quite happily, skinner.  not only was skinner a nice young man, but his art is amazing and disgusting and wonderful.  i bought the boychik a critical hit shirt because it was boss, and now i wish i had one.  i have a strict rule at comicon though: i buy one shirt.  only one tshirt because let's face it, i have a ton of black tshirts.  this year, i scored and found an anton lavey shirt that my husband LOOOOOVES.  (no, he hates it.) 

it was great to have both kids at the con this year, and i hope i get to take them both for a few mores years to come.  if they ever get too old to go to comicon, i'm going to be sad. 

daydreaming

the decemberists are doing a series of posters for every town they visit for their current tour.  every one of them i've seen has been lovely; whenever i get a little facebook message about a new one, i start daydreaming about buying some to frame and hang up in the house. 

 these are just a few of the ones i'd love to get my hands on! putting them up here i realize that they all have similar colors.  i've really been enjoying warm, orangey-yellow tones lately.  as if you couldn't tell.

before i go rushing out to buy any posters, though, i need to frame a lovely nikki mcClure print D and i got as a wedding present.  it's this pretty one. again, more orange!  it was D's favorite wedding present.  he loved that the couple were kissing in the kitchen, with the jars of fruit in the foreground.  our first kiss was in the kitchen, and so he's romantic about that.  who are we kidding, i am too.   

MLK day!

i always have monday off, so today isn't too different for me.  however, the kids also have today off, so that's something new. 

we had a fun weekend.  we started it off on friday night, hitting the seattle art museum, in hopes of seeing the end of the picasso exhibit.  unfortunately for the kids, i did not buy tickets online like i should have, and that part of the museum was sold out.  the rest of the museum was open, though, so we walked through the permanent collection, which i think the kids enjoyed.  the boychik brought his girlfriend, and they went one way while the girlchild and i went the other.  none of the kids had ever been to the SAM, or really any art museum, so it was kind of an impromptu field trip and educational experience.  the girlchild liked looking at the modern art with me, she was a fan of the paintings and the sculpture.  at one point while we were sitting and looking at some painting she told me she "didn't get" some of it, to which i tried to explain that she didn't have to.  it didn't have to mean anything, it didn't have to be a cerebral exercise, it could just be pretty paintings, or fun, weird things to look at.  she seemed to relax and enjoy herself more after that.  the boychik and his girlfriend found some stuff they really liked, and had a good time people watching as well.  we had dinner at uwajimaya,  got trapped in a parking garage for almost an hour, and they got to laugh at my terrible shifting skills on some of seattle's steepest hills, and by the time we headed home all the kids were happy and tired.  most of them fell asleep on the way home.  it was fun to introduce them to something new, and it had been so long since i'd been to a museum myself.  i'd almost forgotten how happy seeing some art makes me.  there is something so refreshing about a trip to a museum; you come home with all sorts of ideas and plans.   

we've spent the rest of the weekend goofing off, not doing much of anything.  i'm working on the never-ending afghan, and thinking about hitting the open gym this afternoon at the hospital.  nothing too exciting!  i should be cleaning the house or something, but we'll see how that goes.  i'm kind of in a zone with that afghan and just want to knit until my hands complain.   

these are their stories

how did i not hear about this art show before?

i am specifically in love with this needlepoint.  the kate beacon's are also lovely, and really, any of the ones that involve Briscoe or Stabler are all right with me.